OBEDIENCE IS OPENNESS TO GOD

OBEDIENCE IS OPENNESS TO GOD
WHILE WE LET GOD GUIDE US – not trying to be obedient on our own, and failing when it gets hard. We fool ourselves, and believe the evil around us, if we think we can be obedient to God, without God’s help. God wants to be in our lives, and is not impressed by us trying to be “strong” and doing it all on our own. This living with God is not a game of impressing God. We are listening to the wrong people, or those who don’t have a relationship with God, when we believe we should be independent and show God we can do this all by ourselves. That is not what a life with God is like. God is already with us, inside us, and knows how we struggle and the fears we have, yet God still loves us without malice.

We are Christ’s beloved, and Jesus is ready to carry our burdens with us. When Jesus says, 28 “Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest. 29 Accept my teachings and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your lives”, he is saying that we don’t have to be a hero, and carry our burdens by ourselves. God does not want us to suffer in this way, and is not impressed by it. So Jesus then says, 30 “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” A yoke is a wooden apparatus, with spaces for the heads of two oxen, and is designed to help hold them together, to work in tandem, so they can work safely and efficiently. Of course, there is a learning curve, while learning to work together within the yoke. This is the picture Jesus shows us, of how he will work together with us to bear our burdens with us, and lend us strength to get through our suffering. Jesus will teach us how to live with Jesus, and being supported by the yoke. This is what obedience really is, faithfulness in practice. Opening ourselves to God, letting go of our pride, and relinquishing our need for control, in order to gain a life of humility, working in tandem with the Holy Spirit, to do what we are called to do.    Loving and compassionate God, who is willing to work right next to us, we are grateful. Help us learn to walk with you in faith, knowing you will be the guiding strength and direction, as we walk the rocky path you have given us. Increase our thankfulness and joy, as we learn to trust your love that will never get us lost.    Amen.        PEACE

COME TO GOD, ALL OF US

COME TO GOD, ALL OF US
WITHOUT FEAR – because we will be greeted with love. We hear in John 5: 24 “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. 25 And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it’s here now, when the dead will hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live. 26 The Father has life within, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son. 27 And he has given him authority to judge everyone because he is the Son of Man. 28 Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, 29 and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment. 30 I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.” Jesus does not speak of guilt and the judgment is only with love. There is a profound message of acceptance, when we come to God. This is a promise – one that is available to all of us.

The message of guilt that so many of us think we will face us from Jesus is not what Jesus said at all. It is unfortunately a message that the church has sent, in order to make people behave. Many in the church of the past and the present, have failed God by telling lies about what Jesus expects of us. It suited their purposes, and filled their desire to control others. They have tried to put themselves in a place of authority over others, with anything but love for others as their intention. And yet even they are able to be forgiven. God does not place conditions on who will be forgiven and who will not. There is NOTHING that can stand in the way of a relationship with God, no sin, no guilt so awful that God will not forgive us. Never believe the message of fear that others may try to make us believe. God loves us now and will always love us, as a loving parent and a partner in the work of transforming the world into God’s kingdom.   Gracious God, we thank you for your grace shown as unconditional love for us all. Give us the understanding to believe in this great gift, and accept it. Let your love rain down on us, that we may feel it and share it with others.    Amen.        PEACE

KNOWING OUR GOD

KNOWING OUR GOD
IS WITH US – and is supporting and caring for us can be the difference in how well we get through our days. I confess that several years ago I let illness and the chaos of the results of water damage in our home get between me and God. I had stopped practicing consciousness prayer. The results were not pretty, and not what I wanted in my life. I had let evil creep in and take over. Everything was harder, certainly not joyful, and I was affecting others around me in negative ways. I didn’t like myself very much. I remember a time long ago, when I felt like this most of the time, and I never thought it possible that it would return. But there I was, and it stunk.

One morning the words of one of my favorite hymns started going through my head. I stopped and began praying and singing it in my head. Psalm 91 came to mind, and “On Eagles Wings” is the song based on that Psalm. It is comforting and at the same time uplifting. The music soars and adds to the message the words bear. Check it out online with the link below.

Here is what Psalm 91 says, in part,   14 “The Lord says, ‘Whoever loves me, I will save. I will protect those who know me.  15 They will call to me, and I will answer them. I will be with them in trouble; I will rescue and honor them.  16 I will give them a long, full life, and they will see how I can save.’ ”

It is not lost on me that God reminded me of the song and the Psalm, because I was unconsciously calling to God for help. Something in me said uncle and cried out to God. God had not gone away and responded to me with love and support. Thanks be to God.   Gracious and loving God, may we all know your love and support – when we need it, and even when we think we don’t.    Amen.        PEACE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Eagle%27s_Wings

LETTING GOD IN

LETTING GOD IN
AND THEN LETTING GOD STAY – is almost impossible, if we are the ones doing this work. But God does not intend that we should do this ourselves. This is all a part of the process of letting go – of our fear, and our need to control everything. We may think of this process as a difficult experience, and one just ready to go wrong at any moment. That is our experience with the world. When we are ready to really examine the situation, and apply what we know already about God, and not popular folklore, we may be able to realize that if God is love, the result will benefit us. Yes, our life will be different, and it will also be a lot better. Some of us are so wrapped in fear, that even better is not enticing if it means things will change and we will have to learn a new way to live. In Philippians 2, Paul describes in detail the challenge Jesus accepted, and the new life we are offered.  5 “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,  6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,  7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,  8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.”  

So maybe we are talking to the adventurous among us, who while still in some fear, are willing to open ourselves to the full experience of the love God offers us. That is our part of the process – to be open, willing to risk being loved beyond anything we can conceive, and ready to go on a journey with God. This journey with our creator, redeemer and comforter is no ordinary trip, and yet there are parts of it that will have some familiarity. We will see the beauty of all that God has created around us, more vividly than we have seen it before. We will be introduced to others that are on the same journey, folks who are excited to know us, and filled with generosity and love. Along the way, we will be guided by God, so we will know which routes to use. There will be others with us who trust God too, and are willing to help anyone who asks for help. The roads we will travel will look very much like the roads we used to see, but they now have signposts and directions we could not see before we accepted God’s love. As we travel these roads each day, we will see resources that are put there for us to use, in order to ease our journey.

These will make the trip nourishing, instead of depleting us. As we make our way along these pathways, there will be challenges, but we will use the tools we have been given, and be taught by God how best to use them, so the experience and outcome will be a blessing to all involved. This is a very faint picture of what a journey of a lifetime with God will be like. There are not words or paint enough to fully show us what God offers. We will only know what glories await when we accept what God offers, and let God begin the changes in us, transformations of unconditional love only possible through the work God is ready and eager to do in us. Now that we have a glimpse of what happens when we let God in, who is ready to accept the ticket on the trip to a new life?   Generous God, we are grateful for this opportunity, are ready to at least consider what this trip may be like, and are thankful for this offer of your astounding love and mercy. Help us see the vision of where this trip could lead us, so we may choose to follow you on the journey. Show us how Jesus and others first made this trip, so we know it can be done.  Guide us into a closer relationship, through prayer, so that we see all the signs you have for us to see, on this exciting journey.    Amen.        PEACE

BLESSING OUR LIVES

BLESSING OUR LIVES
THROUGH READING THE BIBLE – does more than we can imagine. Just like everything else with God, when we put ourselves in a state of being influenced by reading scripture, or being open to God speaking to us through the Bible, we will be surprised by something in the experience. Many of us have had the experience of reading a passage for the first time, or after many times, when something new will jump out at us that we haven’t heard or seen before. We will always find new meaning in it. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in that experience. For as long as we have had scriptural accounts, they have had the sense of their being living stories of God and the people who encounter God. So we do not just read the words, but the Holy Spirit impresses those words and their meaning on our hearts and minds. We can never know what will happen until we begin the process, and the more open we are the more exciting the result will be.

In the last year, I have had the unique experience of channeling a narrative version of “God’s Redeeming Love” that became a Bible Study, an eight session study showing this thread of the truth of God’s love in chronological order, and taken from the whole Bible. I enjoyed it very much, and I was impacted by the insights I gained by seeing the whole of the story from beginning to end, that I had not gained from reading passages previously. We used the study in our congregation last year. I found the whole experience transformational. I anticipate that it will be an eye-opening connection with God for others to go through this study. I am looking forward to sharing the study, and I hope it will be transformational for others. However we read and study scripture, the Bible will always be a blessing in our day, and will bring us closer to God and what God has for us to do now.   Creator and sustainer, we thank you for including us in your living presence in the Bible. May we continue to be inspired and equipped to do your will through it.    Amen.       PEACE

CLEARLY KNOWING

CLEARLY KNOWING
WHAT IS OUR JOB – and what is the work of God, is critical. We have talked about God’s calls to us. That is expressed as a plural because we have an infinite number of calls from God in our lifetime. In learning to understand what they are, and how we are called to respond to God, is critical to our lives as disciples and God’s children. I have said and will continue to say that we need a personal relationship with God in order to live out this kind of life. An important part of that life is prayer. Is it funny I should say that? It is the most direct way we have of communicating with God. Discernment is a particular prayer process where we ask for guidance to see the truth, particularly in complicated situations and when issues are not clear-cut. Discernment is directed toward specific situations in our own lives or can be done by a group to focus on an issue common to them all. Because of this, we need to be careful that we don’t take what comes out of this process and apply it too broadly. When we do that it can quickly move into judgment. The Bible has much to say about judgment, not all of it helpful to us. Much of it reflects biases of the time, or of the writer in those situations. So let’s look at what Jesus says in Matthew 7:  “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. 2 For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.  3 And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?”

I found a disturbing comment on a pastor’s Facebook page that I think helps here. This young pastor is an outspoken defender of a group of God’s children who are highly criticized, and judged harshly for who they are. In this post was a comment from another pastor, who criticized these actions in light of the Bible’s view of sin. This is a complicated issue, but in effect this was a criticism of love and acceptance of human beings as if it is condoning a lifestyle. This attitude is not unique to this post. Many have used it to ostracize whole groups of people. When we look at this in light of God’s call to us all to love others, and in light of Jesus statement about judgment, it then becomes a matter of prayer between us and God as to how we act in every situation. The Bible is not the only source of input God has provided. When we open ourselves to the relationship God offers each of us, we will learn and gain understanding of situations that are too complicated to apply pat answers in directing how we live out God’s love. This is what praying for discernment can do. We cannot see the factors in the lives of others. No amount of wisdom or knowledge gives us the right to judge what others do. God is able to literally put words into our mouths and heart, so using prayer before we speak, we are able to say things we did not know until we let God speak for us. God calls us all to allow this to happen.  Loving God, who knows and loves us all, helps us come to terms with the need to judge others. Help us let go of any evil intent, and replace it with love and the vision of all others being loved by you, no matter who they are, or what they have done. Put a new spirit of unconditional love in our hearts. In the name of Jesus, we pray.    Amen.        PEACE

RELYING ON OUR GOD

RELYING ON OUR GOD
AND NOT RECOGNIZING IT – can happen to us all. I have been aware of God since I was a child and learned to trust God, for many more things than I realized. I have been becoming aware recently just how far a gift of knowing has extended into my life. It is a sense of knowing what is true, and I have known for quite a while that it isn’t just a way of being “right” all the time, but it has an assurance from God behind it. When I realized that God or my guardian angel helped me to know this, then I also knew that my sense of direction comes from God, but this sense of knowing is behind it. My family and those who ride in the car with me know that I call this gift “radar”, and it has usually not failed me, so getting lost has never been a frightening experience. First, I know God is always with me, and then I know I can rely on this sense of radar, of knowing which road to take. How often do we rely on something we may not understand, but we just know what to do, or perhaps even just know what God wants us to do, without thinking twice about it?

In Philippians 4, Paul reminds us: “And my God will supply all your needs according to God’s glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”   Many of us know that God is giving us gifts each day, but we may not recognize all the gifts we have. Through prayer, openness to God and reading scripture, we can become more aware of just how much God is supporting us every day. This is a way of continuing and growing in our relationship with God, our creator, redeemer and comforter. God, with love and purpose, gave us life in the first place, brought Jesus into the world to pay for our sins, and continues to live within us, guiding our lives every day. What are the benefits of the guidance God gives? They are countless, and we can spend our whole lives searching and not know the whole of what God does in and through us each day. As we live with God in us, we learn and grow into the person we were created to be, our true selves. Each day, while we are living and becoming closer to our true life, we become more able to recognize just how God is in us, and what God makes us able to do.   Creator God, who has loved us from the beginning, we are grateful for all the ways you work within, to bring us toward our true selves, and support us as we pass your love and light to others around us. Help us grow in our recognition of you in our lives. Continue to show us steadfast love and guidance, as we add to what we are able to do toward the transformation of this world, in your name.    Amen.        PEACE

“Freedom” by Zenon Frudakis

HONORING AND TRUSTING GOD

HONORING AND TRUSTING GOD
IN FAITHFUL LIVING – is the pattern we see in Proverbs 3. It is a clear and reassuring description of what it means to live a life faithfully following the commandment to love God and to love others too. 13 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.” We hear echoes of what Jesus spoke of much later, to rely on God in order to love others, not in our own strength. We will be frustrated in trying to love on our own, because God is the source. So in order for this to work, we have to be strongly connected to that source. Only then will the energy flow freely and with the power that God gives us. It is like plugging in to God. Until we do this, our results will be unpredictable and we will be at risk of evil turning our intention into something else – fear, jealousy, anger or even hate.

“Happy are those who find [God’s] wisdom, and those who get understanding …It is a tree of life to those who lay hold of it; those who hold it fast are called happy.” In verse 13 and 18 we are told just how vital it is that we connect with God, in order to love others. I have spoken about self-interest being a motivator, and here we see it in verse 18, that we will find happiness when we connect to the love and wisdom God offers. The very end of the chapter puts it in perspective though –  “The wise will inherit honor, but stubborn fools, disgrace.”  I am motivated by the site of all the trees coming to life again, and think of the love and care God has put into the complicated system of life that keeps the cycle renewing itself each spring. Recently this lovely old redbud tree [pictured] was just beginning to show signs of new life in its blossoms, displaying the strength of the life force within it more openly. I see it through my office window and connect to its life force – the wisdom of God, who is so great as to create all of life and wishes us to be a channel of love. Wise and loving God, we thank you for the abundant evidence all around us, showing your power and wisdom. May we reach in and connect with you, gaining the strength you offer us. Guide us in using these resources to love others, as you have shown us.    Amen.         PEACE

A PRAYER OF GRATITUDE AND RENEWAL

A PRAYER OF GRATITUDE AND RENEWAL
[FOR EARTH DAY]

O God who grows the crocus and forsythia
To bring a smile,
We welcome the daffodils and hyacinth
A sure sign of spring,
A warmer sun and the rain are both
inspiring new growth.

O God who brings renewal each year
To lift our hearts,
We are renewed with hope each spring
By your beautiful creation,
Strong and ever growing around us,
As your spirit does within us.

As the sun warms the earth,
You warm our hearts with love.
As the rain waters and gives growth,
Your Holy Spirit gives our souls growth.

As the earth nurtures plants and animals,
So it feeds our place in your realm.
Abiding God, we are grateful.
Sustaining God, we are humbled by creation.

Just as the earth feeds all creation,
So our whole being is fed and sustained by you.
We live new lives of gratitude and humility,
Sprouting in the earth of your endless blessings.
Reborn and sustained by your creative love,
Guide us in caring for the earth and all your creation.  Amen.     PEACE

GOD IS GIVING TO US ALL

GOD IS GIVING TO US ALL
OPPORTUNITIES EVERY DAY – to respond to our calling from God. As Jesus reads the following passage from Luke 4, it is an example for us. There are quotes from several points in Isaiah.  “On the Sabbath day he went to the synagogue, as he always did, and stood up to read.  17 The book of Isaiah the prophet was given to him. He opened the book and found the place where this is written: 18 “The Lord has put his Spirit in me, because he appointed me to tell the Good News to the poor. He has sent me to tell the captives they are free and to tell the blind that they can see again. [Isaiah 61:1]   God sent me to free those who have been treated unfairly [Isaiah 58:6]   19 and to announce the time when the Lord will show his kindness.” [Isaiah 61:2]  20 Jesus closed the book, gave it back to the assistant, and sat down. Everyone in the synagogue was watching Jesus closely.  21 He began to say to them, “While you heard these words just now, they were coming true!”  While Jesus says these things to be true, they are also true for us. Over many years, there have been far too many excuses for why we are not able to do the things Jesus did. God is not impressed by excuses. Jesus is our example, and we are able to do all that Jesus did because God is working within us to do those things. The examples from Isaiah are all the ways to love others in God’s name, and are just a very small sampling of the kinds of acts of love God is setting before us every day. We all think we are not able to do any of them, and that is true. But with God acting in and through us – there is NO LIMIT to what we could do for God, if God wills it.

A small group of older women recently did a skit for a mission moment in worship, and they were amazed at what they could do when it finally happened. Before that, they were very doubtful. Yet I know God acted in and through them, bringing out qualities of humor and love, while they presented their message. My whole life is filled with instances of doubt and then gratitude, as God worked in and through me, to do things I had never done before, and was sure I would not be able to do. In that process, I have grown into someone who is now able to be a channel for God’s words. When we are a part of this process of allowing God to work in and through us, it is thrilling and yes – fun. There may be varying amounts of fear, but as soon as we put our trust in God, that will dissipate. The next time there will be less fear, until we willingly and with joy respond to what God wants and needs us to do.

God calls us all to do big things and small. That may amount to a whole career or small things we do once. When we have done something for God, it will be easier to do something the next time. The reason it works that way is – God never asks us to do something without giving us the resources to do it. Prayer becomes very important in this process with God. It may be through prayer that we hear God’s voice. Or if we are presented with an opportunity, through prayer we can ask God for what we need to do the job. When we are in the midst of doing the job, we can pray for reassurance that we are following what and how God wants us to do it. However this all happens, we are always doing the job with God, with the Holy Spirit, within us and right beside us. Knowing that and then experiencing it will bring strength for the next time and the next. When we experience the passage above of “ ‘The Lord has put his Spirit in me’ ”, we are able to do great things for God and God’s creation.   Sustaining God, we are grateful for you being in and around us, every day of our earthly lives. Help us know this so strongly that we will not hesitate to do and act for you whenever you need us to do just that. Take away our fear, by letting us know your presence strongly. Give us the push we need to respond to others with love and compassion, telling them of your grace for us all. Show us how we can follow Jesus in our own lives, for you. Walking in the footsteps of Christ, we pray.    Amen.        PEACE